Feature Article

Music is cool.
by James Yarksy

About the author:
James Yarksy is a husband, dad, Quaker, singer, songwriter, music producer, film scorer, high school teacher, columnist, plumber, community volunteer, and peace activist.  His many music projects include the critically acclaimed solo album "Big Dead Waltz." 

Isn't it cool when a young fella joins a rock band because he wants to impress chicks? His guitar is the same color as his pimples. He struggles to figure out why a groove is such a hard thing to establish. He struggles some more and hears what might be something resembling something that might make someone's head bob. And of course, that someone might be a chick. He's skinny. He's poor. He's working at the taco joint to buy strings and an amp. He learns to sing. He learns to write. He doesn't think about the chicks so much any more.

Isn't it cool when a young fella plays original music to dedicated fans at CBGBs? He looks out in the audience for people who will look him in the eye when he sings. He tries to discern what they're thinking. They try and discern what he's thinking. He stops thinking. While looking at these brave souls, he finds his voice on stage. He realizes he has a singular sound because his influences have faded into the communion with his audience.

It's cool when he makes a record; when he realizes he'll listen to that record with pride when he is an old man; when he gets great reviews. It's cool when he writes better music as he ages. It's even cool when he inevitably gives up the business of music and becomes and teacher and a plumber.

He is me.

I'm convinced that music is physiological experience. I am physically altered by the sound of a Bach cello suite or a Pakistani Qwali singer or Al Green. Music changes me for the better. Conversely, I accept that music may change me for the worse. Yet I invite the scary music in. I still don't know if I completely understand why I do that.

Maybe I listen to that music because that's how life works. Good and bad. Light and dark. Maybe the positive music reminds me of G-d's love. Maybe the dark music reminds me that I'm earthbound and that here on earth we share our space with the bugs and the mud and the blood.

Perhaps my favorite line in any song is the first line of Leonard Cohen's "Everybody Knows".

"Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
everybody rolls with their fingers crossed"

Brilliant. Deep joy, deep frustration. Isn't it wonderful that human beings still roll those dice? Or are we idiotic? I love to ask myself those two questions every day. I love that we try to climb those ridiculous mountains. I love that we give up and crawl around with the bugs again until we decide it's time to reach for something impossible. We're a mess and we're perfect. Art addresses that. I appreciate art.

For me, the most powerful form of art is music. Music is indefinable. Music is trashy and sublime. Music is ancient and new. It is our voice. It is how we hear one another.

It should probably be noted here that I worship in silence. I believe silence is an appropriate path to G-d. I don't think music is about G-d, I think music is about man. Music may speak of G-d but it does not speak to G-d. I think we use songs and words to speak to one another. We use songs to reach our poor, our tired, our huddled masses. We use songs to flirt with the folks on Park Avenue.

It works. People everywhere love music. It's the wonder-you know? It's the possibility that something thrilling may happen as a result of pushing play. I believe my pal Steve Siler understands this relationship with music. I believe that's why he started Music for the Soul.

Here in our America, doctors are treating patients with carefully measured doses of poison. So far, it's the best treatment we've figured out to treat some stubborn, terminal diseases. These doctors fill sick folks up with toxins enough to kill the disease but not the patient. Imagine the shock that "medicine" inflicts on a person's system. It's mind boggling.

Listen everybody, if you embrace the idea that music can affect you in a positive, physiological manner then you must see the logic and ideology behind Music for the Soul. If someone is prescribed several doses of chemotherapy it stands to reason that they will benefit greatly from our prayers, our love, our compassion and our art.

All together now-press play.

Yarsky